Ellie Goulding

No matter how many music blogs you read or how many obscure 7-inch pieces of vinyls you own, when you hear that digitally-manufactured squawk that opens up Ellie Goulding’s semi-hit single (and unofficial New Girl theme song) “Anything Could Happen,” those feet of yours get to tapping. No one’s predicting this British-born synthpop songstress will be the next Amy Winehouse, but Goulding’s music is undeniably fun. And, truth be told, she’s got a hell of a voice.

Goulding has endured a good amount of publicity since her 2010 debut, Lights—some good, some bad. The Guardian described her voice as being “really something special,” while Pitchfork once described her sound as “not folky enough for purists, not sensational enough for the pop crowd, but mid-market, middlebrow.” At her best, Goulding sounds like a dance-heavy mash-up of Katy Perry and Florence + the Machine with a splash of Enya somewhere in there. (And, depending on who you ask, at her worst, she sounds like ... well, a mash-up of Katy Perry and Florence Welch.)

It took her last album, 2012’s Halcyon Days, two whole years to finally break through in the States, but thanks to songs like the aforementioned “Anything Could Happen” and the smash hit “Lights,” it looks as if Goulding’s moment may finally have arrived. This show’s at Temple’s Liacouras Center; if the pop machine has its way, it’ll be the Wells Fargo Center next time. // MAX UFBERG